Care Act
“So how much does an x-ray cost?” my mom asked me when I called her from Urgency Care. Following an unfortunate mishaps with a dresser drawer that came loose and fell onto my foot, I decided to seek a little medical care. Waiting 24 hours to see if the swelling went down on its own, I was reluctant to go in. I have no idea how much an x-ray costs, which was why I waited to seek care.
Here’s the thing: I have medical insurance- but I have a high deductible to keep the premiums down. I’m nowhere near my max for the year so much of the cost of the quick trip to Urgency will be out of pocket. I have to be fairly hurt to invest in a doctor’s opinion, but in this case, my foot looked broken, and I didn’t want to injure it worse with carelessness. Read more
I haven’t written anything more than an email for a couple days, spent as my writer’s mind is from Campaign 2012. In addition to posting here, I was a regional digital lead for Organizing for America. For many months, I gave my best energy to the cause of reelecting President Obama- and it was worth it. I know all volunteers and staff feel it was worth it following our big electoral win. We are the champions, the victors, the big winners. But what does it all mean, anyway?
What this means is the winning work of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party continues for four more years.
The first major effort of President Obama’s Administration was the Affordable Care Act, which will be fully realized in 2014. Health care reforms will continue to come online, helping save millions of people’s lives and financial futures. It is an inalienable human right to receive health care, and our nation is closer than ever to achieving full coverage. Read more
Will the real Mitt Romney please take a step forward? We know the latest Mitt Romney is much more conservative than the old one, you know; the one he left back in Massachusetts as governor.
Of course, the new, more conservative Mitt Romney was what was needed to win the Republican nomination for president. Now that Mitt has it in the bag, all he needs to do now is shake, shake, shake, that political position’s etch-a-sketch and come out smelling like a moderate. He has to do this to pull in those independents that might not like the sucking-up-to-the-Tea-Party-crowd, “severely conservative” Romney.
Romney should be warned; the American people are not idiots so they’re not going to go for this quick switch. The upcoming debates should be a perfect opportunity for the debate moderators to ask Mitt the tough questions, such as: Read more
It’s very clear that a lot of Americans are concerned a great deal with the new health care law the Affordable Care Act . It’s also quite understandable to be concerned; it does turn the health care system in this country up on its heels. It will change a lot of lives and yet for many, just force them to tighten their budgets more.
The way I see it, the health care law is a rough draft of what this country really wants. It is up to us, the American people to see that our legislators give it to us. We do that by demanding change, not repeal but a fix on the issues we’re mainly concerned about. Read more
National Public Radio reported this morning Rep. Nancy Pelosi is wearing her lucky purple pumps today: the same ones she wore the day the Affordable Care Act was passed. In recognition of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on the constitutionality of health care reform, her choice of footwear could be the perfect symbol for continuing expansion of health care coverage for all Americans.
As soon as I woke, I hurried to my TV and switched on MSNBC, to find out what the Supreme Court’s verdict on health care reform would be….and I was delighted. Judge Roberts broke with the conservatives on the bench to cast the fifth vote which upheld this legislative achievement. His better angels prevailed…and tens of millions of people will benefit from the basic human right of health care access. Read more
As we’re waiting to learn whether the Affordable Care Act will survive the upcoming Supreme Court decision, it’s a good time to remember what’s at stake with the individual mandate — the part of the law that’s least popular with the public and that some Supreme Court Justices seem to find objectionable. Read more
The U.S. is widely known to have the highest health care expenditures per capita in the world, and not just by a little, but by a lot. I'm not going to go into the reasons for this so much, other than to point out that how to rein in these costs has long been the proverbial political hot potato. Any attempt to limit spending or apply evidence-based guidelines to care runs into a buzz saw of criticism. Read more
It has been decided by those who understand the odds and knows what it will take to get the number of delegates to win the Republican nomination, that the more-than presumptive Republican candidate is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The rest of the candidates are just so much fodder and might as well hang up their campaign hats. Read more
When the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act passed Congress and signed into law by President Obama, you would think the mandate for all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, was something that came from the deep bowels of Liberalism. In fact it was originally a conservative idea and has been until Obama and a Democrat-controlled congress took it up. Read more
This week, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that can only be described as historic. Any of you out there (in the U.S. anyway; I realize that my readership is international) who have paid even a passing attention to the news can't help but avoid reporting, debate, and polemics related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which is often disparagingly referred to as "Obamacare." If the law is upheld, or even if most of the law is upheld, it will radically reshape health insurance in this country. Having spent 13 years in the trenches at cancer centers that see a high percentage of uninsured patients, I've come to the view that I hope the law is given a chance to go into full effect, because what we were doing before sure wasn't working. Read more
The NYTimes reporting suggests a 5-4 split against ACA is likely:
Justice Kennedy, along with Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. all asked questions suggesting that they had a problem with the constitutionality of the mandate requiring most Americans to buy insurance. Justice Clarence Thomas, as usual, did not ask any questions, but he is widely expected to vote to overturn the mandate.
As does CNN's Toobin's analysis: Read more
With the Supreme Court hearing arguments for the next three days on the Affordable Care Act, many commentators, including Dahlia Lithwick appear to have so much contempt for the Roberts court that they believe the issue will likely be settled on politics rather than law. Read more
